Gift of Silence
by Peace Ocean
Summary: One-shot, Zach is annoyed by the neighbor's crying baby. Soon to be two-shot, due to some unpleased reviewers. XD Plus, we got a little inspired.
1. Chapter 1

**I know, you're probably mad at us for posting something new instead of continuing one of our stories(none of which have a second chapter) but we were talking to Sil…so blame her! XD JK, we brought up this story we wrote a long time ago, and we sent it to her, she liked it, so we posted it! **

**R.E.T.O.R. **

Zach's eyes flew open.  
"AH!" he sat up in his bed, cursing. Couldn't the neighbor keep the baby quiet?  
The baby's squalls could be heard all over the neighborhood, and Zach had been up half the night trying to ignore it. But no more!  
He quickly pulled a robe over his P.J.s, slipping his feet into his slippers, all the while muttering nonsense about sleeping and babies.  
Finally he was able to storm across the street and pound against the neighbor's door.  
A sound akin to that of a wail was heard, mixing in with the baby's incessant cries.  
The mother opened the door, with an extremely apologetic look on her worn out face.  
"I'm sorry, I can't figure out what's wrong with him!"  
Zach glanced at her exhausted face, knowing he wasn't half as tired as she was. He almost wanted to apologize for storming over...almost.  
"Well, figure out quick! There are people here that need their sleep!"  
She scoffed, a bit of fire coming into her eyes, "Hey, I know! I've been up for almost two nights straight with him!"  
He glanced at the baby, whose face was red from all his crying. Now it had reduced to a whimpering sound, but Zach knew that in a few minutes it would start up again.  
"I already took him to the doctor, but nothing seems to be wrong."  
Zach grunted in response, before turning on his heel and running to his house. The woman watched him, confused, and shut the door. About half an hour later, he was back, pounding on the door.  
She sighed and stood up, patting her baby's back.  
"I alre-" she found an odd looking invention shoved into her face.  
"Look, you plug it in to the wall, flip this switch and it should put him to sleep. I used it on my sister."  
And with that, Zach was gone. The first time mother sighed and closed the door again, giving the invention an angry look, before setting it up, one handedly. She flipped the switch. Suddenly the room was filled with moving images of the ocean, and the soothing sound of waves crashing against the beach flowed through the room. The young mother gasped, and sat in her rocking chair. Baby stopped crying and watched the scene with amazement, settling in his mom's arms comfortably. The young mother smiled, and they both drifted off to sleep.

**Now, I know a few of you are like, "What in the world is R.E. T.O. R.?" well, it means…actually I think I won't tell you, I'll wait until we post a second chapter for the first time! XD :P**


	2. Chapter 2

**So, like, Hey, guys! We got a few requests to continue this, and thanks to the "Wacky Wednesday" dream Iris had, we can now! *pats sister on back* Thank goodness for wacky sisters. XD Read, review, enjoy!**

Consciousness slowly came to the tired young mother sprawled on the full bed. Her sheets were rumpled and the comforter was thrown off, sinking in a heap on the floor in the large, blue room. Her baby was already awake, contentedly sucking on his fist, his dark blue eyes swimming around, looking for something to latch onto. She sighed, turning onto her back, brushing her frazzled reddish-brown hair away from her face, sunlight pouring in the window and dancing across her face, highlighting the light rows of fading freckles spread across the bridge of her nose and cheek-bones. Exhaustion still dripped from every pore of her body from the long night with her baby, but she sat up anyway, stretching her arms out as she yawned, scrunching the upper half of her face as her baby stared up at her, startled from his roof-gazing.

"Morning, sweetie," she smiled down at him, reaching over to trace a finger down his face. He stared at her for a few more moments, before letting out a startled-sounding, "Wah."

"Oh, please don't start."

He merely whined, scrunching up his own face, before crying again.

"Olah! Olah!" she mimed his crying, not unkindly, simply tired.

"Eudora?" her mother called up the stairs. Oh, how Eudora hated her name. But it seemed ungrateful to change it.

"What is it Ma?" the mother picked up her tiny baby, patting his back and mumbling soothing words as she walked down.

The grandmother, a widowed woman in her mid forties, walked out of the living room with the contraption from last night.

"Eudora, what sort of demented salesman sold you this?"

"Sales...?" the young mother's eyes lit up, "Oh, thank you, Ma!"

The older woman raised an eyebrow as the mother hurried over, pulling the invention out of the grandmother's hands and gently placing her baby on the soft carpet. Within moments, she had it set up, projecting images onto the walls and playing the gentle guitar music again.

"Where'd you get it?"

"That neighbor down the street. He came over last night, all in a huff cause he couldn't sleep with Ronnie here crying," she sat next to the now quiet baby who was staring up at the images with extreme interest, his tiny fists fidgeting in the air, "He shouted at me, I shouted at him, he disappeared for half an hour and came back with this, saying something about a sister."

"Oh," the older woman pinned up her graying brown hair, watching the contraption as it spun and the projectors moved to keep up the illusion of being in the pictures it projected. It seemed...familiar.

"The rich man?"

"Uh, now that I think of it, yeah," the red-head gently placed her baby in his playpen, smiling at the machine appreciatively.

"Hmm..."

The young woman turned to her mother, crossing her arms.

"I know that look, Ma. What are you thinking?"

The older woman chuckled, "Oh, nothing, pumpkin, just wondering if you thanked him."

The younger woman frowned, shrugging, "I don't think so."

"Then you go do that on your way to the store today. I'll take care of Ronnie, if you want."

Eudora smirked, playfully shaking her head, "Who are you, my mother?"

"Yes, I am, dear," the older woman chuckled, tapping her daughter's nose as she passed by on her way to the kitchen, "And tell him I said hi."

"Uh-" the kitchen door closed gently, "Okay..."

Zach finally gave up the war to stay asleep, rolling out of bed with a yawn. The Zach-bot that usually stayed in the room with him had run out of charge some time in the night, so instead of his usual morning routine of getting fixed up by his Zach-bots, he stumbled into the bathroom on his own, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Normally, his waking time was rather erratic, but he usually woke up on his own before 10 o'clock. But, looking at the clock, he noticed it was nearly noon. Why was he so tired then?

As he was slowly brushing his teeth, toothbrush swirling around and around and toothpaste beginning to run down the handle of the brush, he remembered.

_That neighbor's baby. _

Why did he even keep this urban house? Too many people everywhere. Absolutely everywhere.

He shuddered, before spitting out the stinging toothpaste. Maybe he could move into that tropical retreat mansion he had bought last month. It was a huge estate, with pristine, partially untouched land spreading for nearly a whole square mile. A huge grin would have broken out on his face as he thought of all the wild animals that could be living there, just waiting to be captured and robotized, if it hadn't been for the mouthwash he was currently swishing around.

Suddenly, the doorbell interrupted his train of thought, startling him into swallowing the mouthwash. After a couple of minutes spent choking and coughing, then groaning and muttering, he walked down to the nearest intercom...Which was next to his bed.

"This had better not be those kids asking to get their ball again," he glared at the machine as he punched the button for the front door.

...And nothing.

"Oh, come on! What's the matter with you?!" he growled as he rapidly punched the button again and again.

"_Uh, nothing!" _an annoyed voice played over the intercom. Zach's head snapped around, searching for the video feed that _should _have been projected onto the wall, finding it on the ceiling, finally. The neighbor, who had before looked rather messy and tired, but now looked clean and wide awake, glared at him from it, _"What's the matter with you! Can't a neighbor stop by to thank- You know what, forget it. Obviously you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and if I know men, you're going to blame it all on me."_

"Wai-wha-...men?" Zach stared at her, not understanding her flow of thought.

"_Forget it, bye." _she turned to walk off.

"Whoa, wait, who told you to leave?! I mean-"

"_You with that attitude!" _she came back, glaring up at the camera.

Zach sighed, running a hand down his face, "You know what? Let's start this again, okay?"

He turned, mumbling, "I'll be right down."

"_Wait, what?"_

"…_.."_

"_Hello?_ Great, he left. Way to go Eudora," she sighed, turning and pushing the stroller holding her sleeping baby.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?"

With a jump, she turned, finding Zach poking his head out his wide front doors.

"Uh..."

"Look, let's start this again, like _adults._"

"What, are you saying I'm acting like a child? Who was the one shouting at someone before-?"

"I was shouting at my darned intercom!" he groaned, as though it should have been obvious, "It was projecting the video feed onto the roof instead of the wall where it should have been."

She paused for a second, "Well, alright, but I don't like your attitude. And don't you mean ceiling?"

"Ugh, whatever!"

She turned around again, pushing the stroller up to the doors, noticing that he was avoiding getting anything more than his head out the door at all costs.

"Scared of the sun or something?"

He scoffed, "No!"

"Well?"

Suddenly, he looked a bit ashamed, "There these kids that have been bothering me all week; when I _tried _to get them off my lawn, those darn Wild Rats came over and made a fool of me!"

He seemed almost ready to burst with anger.

"Whoa, cowboy, calm down there," she raised an eyebrow at his reddening face.

"Anyway, _now _those _kids _think they can get away with anything now!" he hid a little further into his house, "And they're out to get me."

Eudora chuckled, "You sure you're not overreacting?"

"I NEVER OVERREACT!" he shouted.

"_Right. _Anyway, what happened to acting like '_adults_' as you put it?" she mimicked his voice, smirking at him.

"Well, I don't like your attitude much either," he huffed, and pulled back, opening the black doors slightly as he crossed his arms haughtily.

"Irrelevant."

He gave her an annoyed glare,"And your kid's going to get sunburn if you leave him out in the sun any longer."

"...Is that your way of inviting me in?"

"Maybe," he shrugged.

She huffed, shaking her head with an incredulous smile.

"I can't. I'm on my way to the supermarket. Oh, and my mom said hi."

He gave her a puzzled look, "Who?"

"Zuna Mercado," she shrugged, "Don't ask me why she-"

She hadn't finished her sentence and Zach was walking across the street.

"Ugh. Strange guy," she looked down at Ron, her gaze turning to worry, "_Are you _going to get sunburned?"


End file.
